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#2 Kawhi Leonard must win at least a couple of regular season MVPs
Another glaring gap on Kawhi Leonard’s resume is that he has never won a regular season MVP award. The closest he has come to winning the NBA’s premier individual accolade was in 2015-16, when he finished second, behind Stephen Curry’s unanimous MVP season.
Leonard also put in a strong showing in 2016-17 but finished third behind Russell Westbrook (historic triple-double season) and James Harden in the MVP race. More recently, Leonard finished fifth in 2019-20 when Giannis Antetokounmpo won his second MVP award.
Kawhi Leonard must, therefore, do better on this front. Most of the great all-time players have multiple regular season awards. Kareem has six, Bill Russell and Jordan have five each, while Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron have four MVP awards to their credit. Among the active players looking to break into the NBA’s all-time top-five list, Curry and Antetokounmpo have two regular season MVP wins each while Durant has one regular season MVP.
Winning a couple of regular season MVP awards would give Kawhi Leonard the same number of MVPs as Curry, Giannis and Duncan. That would catapult him ahead of Bryant, O’Neal, Olajuwon and Durant, all great players in their own right.
#3 Kawhi Leonard must win another Finals MVP with the LA Clippers
Winning the NBA Finals MVP with a third team would put Kawhi Leonard in a very select club. Currently, Kareem, LeBron and Kawhi are the only players to win multiple Finals MVP awards with different teams. But Kareem achieved this feat with only two ball clubs: the Milwaukee Bucks (1971) and the LA Lakers (1985).
If Kawhi Leonard wins a third Finals MVP with the Clippers, he and LeBron James – who has won the Finals MVP award with Miami (2012, 2013), Cleveland (2016) and the Lakers (2020) – would be the only two players to win Finals MVP with three different teams.
More importantly, winning another Finals MVP would mostly mean that Kawhi Leonard has also led the LA Clippers to their first-ever NBA championship. That would really put Kawhi in a special, special place on the all-time list.
If he gets the Clippers their first Larry O’Brien Trophy, he would have then helped a second franchise after the Toronto Raptors to their first-ever NBA title. That would be something even LeBron James cannot boast about.
Also read: Kawhi Leonard ACL injury: What does it mean for his and the LA Clippers’ future?
Guess the Bulls players in this quiz and it's not going to be easy!
